


It's Not Just The Gnargles

by hyperionnebulae



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, suggestions of mental illness, suggestions of past death experience
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-08-31 23:43:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20248597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hyperionnebulae/pseuds/hyperionnebulae
Summary: Luna and Harry talk around the idea of mental illness.





	It's Not Just The Gnargles

_ You ever think that everybody just expects me to be weird so I am weird? They think “Oh hey it’s Luna, she couldn’t hurt anyone because she lives in her dream world and, though magic is a real thing that I can do, her world is somehow an unattainable miasma full of silly things that don’t.” And then they laugh and go about their way, never thinking on it again. _

_ It’s like you have the functional people and then you have the crazies. The people that know the existence of death and the people who have felt it intimately. But how do you describe that to the ones whose cogs work correctly without any additional maintenance other than the bimonthly oiling? _

Luna refocuses from the spider on the window to the outside grounds, through the panes.

_ Must. Be. Nice. That. _

Focus then caught and diverted as another group of students walks behind her; they barely give her a glance. Tall one makes a fart joke and they laugh at that. They always laugh at that.

Harry walks over and smiles. “Hey Luna, you alright? It is a gorgeous day out but you seem off.”

Funny how he notices but sometimes they have the same eyes. Eyes that read something a lot like “I’ve put together this cheery mask to cope with how not okay I am, with the dissonance in trying to fit the sounds in my head within the world outside it.” Luna returns the smile.

“I’m just fine, thanks. Were you heading outside soon?”

“It is lovely out today; we could walk together if you like.” Harry returns, looking a bit skeptical.

“I would like that, yes.”

So they walk away from the window and out into the quad.

“You know, you don’t have to… hide it from me. I mean you know I think you are brilliant and very capable of handling it yourself but… you don’t have to.” The young man attempts to give her a comforting but concerned smile. “Some days, it isn’t just the gnargles is it?”

“...no… no sometimes I guess it’s just... me.”

Harry finds a bench to sit on and looks out over the school grounds. “Just you, huh. Sounds kinda scary, that.”

“It can be sometimes.”

He hums a tune quietly. Something… made-up perhaps. There’s a bit of wind and it catches, pulling the tones from her grasp of them and off for something else to enjoy. It smelled a bit like honey in the whiff Luna caught but then it was gone, much like her counting to three lately. Perhaps he was lost in it.

“Do you need a map, Harry?”

“Perhaps… doesn’t everyone though?” Luna thought about that for a moment. “Maybe you and I should write one.”

She smiles. “But then the gnargles might steal it.”

“They might but… what if they didn’t? Or what if they needed one too?”

Her smile turns into a soft laugh.

“Oh good, Luna still thinks I’m funny.” He is grinning from ear to ear now. “I haven’t even pulled out the bad jokes yet.”

“What bad jokes?”

“I dunno, I haven’t thought of any just yet.” He chuckles before sobering up a bit. “Hey, you are a warm light, okay? Just because you can’t see it today doesn’t mean it isn’t there. You don’t have to be a Gryffindor to be brave.”

“You don’t have to be a Ravenclaw to be clever.” She returns.

A bell chimed in the distance. Harry sighed and starts grinning again. “I bet you 3 sicles, that Ron will come out of that tower complaining about another love related divination.”

Luna shakes her head. “Nah, the divination tower is on the other side of the quad. And it will be Hermione’s turn to make a fuss, I’m sure of it.”

He tosses her 3 sicles and jumps up from the bench. “Well you got me there! Catch you again after potions! Don’t let your light go out while I’m gone.” He runs off in a third direction as Hermione emerges from the divination tower grumbling.

_ Just in case, I should learn my way in the dark. _


End file.
